To hear my words sung quite gave me the feeling of a successful
translator. The professor had his own distinctive name for each
of his pupils. Eliza was "Naivete," from her artless manners ;
and me he called " Etheria," probably on account of my star-
gazing and verse-writing habits. Certainly there was never
anything ethereal in my visible presence.
A botany class was formed in town by a literary lady who was
preparing a school text-book on the subject, and Eliza and I
joined that also. The most I recall about that is the delightful
flower-hunting rambles we took together. The Linnaean system,
then in use, did not give us a very satisfactory key to the
science. But we made the acquaintance of hitherto unfamiliar wild
flowers that grew around us, and that was the opening to us of
another door towards the Beautiful.
Our minister offered to instruct the young people of his parish
in ethics, and my sister Emilie and myself were among his pupils.
We came to regard Wayland's "Moral Science" (our text-book) as
most interesting reading, and it furnished us with many subjects
for thought and for social discussion.
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